


Sharp Edges

by fade_like_starlight



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Eating Disorders, F/M, body issues, exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-09
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-20 17:08:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/587751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fade_like_starlight/pseuds/fade_like_starlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy Lewis has never been the fitness fanatic type. She’s lazy, and she likes chocolate, and she’s always relied on her curves to see her through life. At least, that’s what she did before she met the Avengers, and before she started having breakfast surrounded by superheroes in pajamas bottoms. Arms and abs and stretching muscles, and it’s lovely to look at, but oh so intimidating. </p>
<p>** Warning: this does deal with body issues and eating disorders. Descriptions are not graphic.**</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sharp Edges

Darcy Lewis has never been the fitness fanatic type. She’s lazy, and she likes chocolate, and she’s always relied on her curves to see her through life. Tits and hips and ass, as her grandmother says. All the Lewis women have them, and in a diet, that’s the first to suffer. So what if she has a little extra around her thighs, or her tummy is a little squishy? She pushes the cleavage up and the neckline down and gets on with her day.

At least, that’s what she did before she met the Avengers, and before she started working at Stark Industries. She has breakfast surrounded by superheroes in pajamas bottoms. Arms and abs and stretching muscles, and it’s lovely to look at, but oh so intimidating. She works on the executive level as Pepper Potts’ assistant and watches the movers and shakers of the world file through in a dazzling array of designer wear that she can, in fact, now afford, but she can’t fit into. She has lunch with Jane Foster, a woman who exists on coffee and Poptarts and never puts on a damn pound, and she co-ordinates missions and disasters with an array of highly trained SHIELD agents who could probably kill her with a little finger and go for a run afterwards.

Darcy still loves her curves, especially when she catches Steve Rogers surreptiously glancing her way over breakfast, but maybe it’s time to tone up, just a little. She joins Pepper before breakfast each morning in the gym, and feels a little more virtuous eating her fruit and yogurt while the boys demolish pastries and sugary cereal.

Soon she can go for an hour or more on the treadmill, but it’s not enough, and she asks Natasha Romanov to help train her after lunch. Natasha teaches her to punch, and kick, and to stretch her muscles in ways previously unknown. Darcy gains strength, but she also gains muscle, and she stays the same size.

Steve runs at twilight, makes his way through the city winding down from the day, and getting ready for the night. One afternoon, Darcy is there, waiting for him, in her track pants and tshirt, and asks, _Can I come along?_ He agrees, and holds his pace back the first night, but she runs flat out and he has to push himself to keep up. It becomes a nightly ritual, and when they stop afterwards at Steve’s favourite bakery for a treat, Darcy contents herself with water.

She feels the inches dropping - from her boobs, sure, but also from her stomach and her hips and her thighs, and it feels good.

She buys herself a beautiful designer dress a few months later, but she never wears it. It’s sleeveless, and she hasn’t done any real work on her arms. She goes to Clint, and asks him to help her lift weights.

She’s typing notes for Pepper one day when she starts feeling light headed. She downs a full bottle of water, but it doesn’t help. She searches her bag, finds the emergency pack of crackers. She splits one in half and nibbles until she feels better.

The next day, she follows Pepper to the labs and waits while Pepper talks to Tony. Jane comes in and flings her arms around Darcy, exclaiming that Darcy never visits anymore. Darcy tries to pull back, but it’s too late, and Jane is pulling at Darcy’s shirt, saying _what have you done?_ Then Tony calls, and Jane answers, and Darcy follows Pepper out of the room.

Lunch the week after, and Pepper has Tony, Steve, Phil Coulson and Maria Hill in her office. Darcy takes a sandwich from the platter and puts it on her plate. Steve frowns at her, but Darcy pretends not to see it.

It is not a serious meeting, and Darcy finds herself laughing at Tony’s antics and Coulson’s dry wit. She starts feeling that bubble in her head again, the one that demands food, and she pushes it away, sucking on her bottle of sparkling water instead. Maria is saying something to her, and the room goes black, and Darcy falls out of her chair.

She opens her eyes to find herself in Steve’s arms, and he is yelling at Pepper, saying something about _light as a feather_ and _why didn’t you know_ and Tony yells back, and Pepper is crying. Darcy tries to say _stop_ , she doesn’t like it when they yell, but she closes her eyes instead.

When she wakes again, she is in a bed in the hospital wing of Stark Industries, a drip in her arm and Captain America sleeping in the chair beside her bed. It’s usually the other way around.

She fumbles for the glass beside her bed, and Steve wakes up.

‘Water?’ she asks, and she doesn’t recognise her own voice.

‘Juice,’ he says firmly. ‘You need the sugar.’

It’s some time later, and Darcy has slept again, and she wakes to hear a hushed conversation in the corner of her room.

‘Gym in the morning with me,’ Pepper is saying. ‘For months now. She doesn’t do any more than I do.’

‘Kickboxing with me in the afternoon,’ Natasha says.

‘We run after work,’ Steve says.

‘Weightlifting at night,’ Clint says. ‘How did we not see this?’

Jane is crying, and Darcy wants to tell her to stop. Steve looks over and sees she’s awake, pushes the others out of the room.

‘Hi,’ he says. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Better,’ Darcy lies.

‘Bullshit,’ he says, and she smirks a little at his swearing.

She’s released from hospital after she proves to them she can eat sufficient meals over the next few days, and Steve takes her for a walk to the park, because she hasn’t seen fresh air in a week. He keeps his arm around her and says ‘Why?’

She tries to find a way to tell him. She wasn’t pretty enough, or good enough, or strong enough, or smart enough. He spends his days with sharp-edged spies and assassins and his nights with tiny women at Stark fundraisers and public events. She is neither sharp-edged nor tiny but she wanted to fit into that world.

‘But I like you,’ he says gently, running his fingers through her hair. ‘I like your smile and I like your laugh and I like the way you put extra chocolate sauce on your icecream and I like your softness. There’s still so much I don’t know about this world, but I do know that whenever I’m with you, I feel like I’m at home, and I don’t like seeing you hurt yourself like this.’

She cries, and he hugs her closer, and they walk home. They stop at his favourite bakery, and he buys her a cookie, and she splits it with him.

‘I like you, too,’ Darcy says, ‘and I miss feeling like myself. I don’t like being sharp-edged. I miss my curves.’

She stops going to the gym with Pepper, and she stops lifting weights with Clint. She still trains with Natasha once a week, because she does like being able to kick ass.

She throws away the crackers, and she starts giggling over Poptarts with Jane again. She has hot chocolate with Pepper at least once a week, and they cry and promise to take better care of each other.

She still runs with Steve, but when they stop at their favourite bakery, she tries a different pastry each night.


End file.
